Expedia Group, an online travel company that provides hotel reservations, airline tickets, and vacation packages has said that it has raised $3.2 billion in fresh capital to boost its liquidity, in an effort to ride out a coronavirus-driven collapse in travel demand.
Also, the company named its new CEO Peter Kern, who was earlier holding the position of Vice Chairman. The company said it would abandon its dividend, implement furloughs and reduce work-week programs to save cash.
“We are unable to make any predictions as to when travel will rebound but we emphatically believe that it will, for … ‘if there’s life, there’s travel,'” Expedia Chairman Barry Diller said.
Travel companies around the world are rushing to shore up finances after a steep fall in demand due to travel restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, which has infected more than 2.6 million people globally.
The online travel group said private equity firms Silver Lake Partners and Apollo Global Management would invest about $1.2 billion in the company and would have board representation upon the closing of the deal in May.
Expedia will also raise about $2 billion in new debt. It had cash and cash equivalents, and short-term investment balance of $3.8 billion, as of Dec. 31, according to filings.
The company’s primary web businesses include Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, and Egencia.com. It launched Tripadvisor in 2011. It also offers services for corporate travel and travel services in Europe and Asia. The company also operates internationally with sites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Japan, and China.
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